REALIZE EVERYTHING IS NOTHING;
… STAY IN THE SILENCE,
… AND DO NOTHING !

“You all strike me as very funny,
because you believe you are the body;

You believe you are your mind,
You believe you are your experiences.

No matter how many times I tell you – you’re ‘Nothing’! – you won’t believe me!

You want to be some’thing’.
Why won’t you be Nothing?!
It’s fun being Nothing!

When you’re Nothing – there’s no world, there’s no God to pray to;
There are no ‘others’; Who can do anything to you?!

There’s no death,
There’s no rebirth;
There’s just ‘Nothing’!

Yet, the ‘Nothing’ is ‘Everything’!

Be ‘Nothing’.
You’ll Love being ‘Nothing’.

You don’t believe me, do you?
You think you have to be ‘something’.

What a group!

You think you’re ‘personal’; that you are an ‘ego’; you’re always wrapped up in ‘me’, ‘me’, ‘me’, ‘me’, ‘me’. True?

You’re always thinking about yourself;
… ‘I need this’.
… ‘I want that’.
… ‘This is wrong’.
… ‘This is right’;

There’s always something!

Nothing is the way it appears;
No ‘thing’ that exists – is, as it appears!

Whether it’s the world, or The Universe, or other people – other situations, or conditions, No ‘thing’ IS, the way it appears!

And as long as you identify with the things that appear, and are not Real, you suffer accordingly.

Anything that you think about – anything that your senses tell you is Real.., is only ‘an appearance’!

It is only ‘an appearance’ – and there’s absolutely nothing wrong!

If it were a Real Entity,
If the world were Real,
If the universe were Real, you would have something to worry about, for everything is subject to the law of change.

Everything changes constantly.

You become frustrated, you become confused, you become confounded – when you have faith in the world, because the world is always changing.

It tells you something one day, The next day, it tells you something else!

Even science agrees with this;
Science tells us that everything is composed of atoms and energy. And when the atoms spin at a certain rate of speed, this determines what the object is.

Science tells us that our eyes see a reflection of light, and the reflection of light causes the image to appear before us; as a tree, as a person, as a mountain, as an ocean, as the moon.

In other words, science is beginning to see that no ‘thing’ exists, the way it appears to exist!
It only exists, because ‘you’ exist!

If you weren’t around to see it, there would be no existence. It is only because you are around and awake, so-to-speak; you awaken the ego, and things appear as they appear to you; yet, no ‘thing’ appears the way it looks!

They say that the sun – millions of years ago, exploded, and caused our planets to be the way they are today; and everything is evolving:
…’The Big Bang Theory’.

That’s all well and good;
But where does the sun come from? They say that there is a Central Sun;

All of the galaxies in the universe revolve around The Great Central Sun, and it takes 24,000 years for a galaxy to revolve around that Central Sun;

The closer the galaxy gets to the sun, the more evolved the planet becomes. The farther away the galaxy goes from the sun, the greater the dark ages on that planet.

They say it takes approximately 12,000 years to go as close to The Central Sun as you’re going to get, and 12,000 years to pull away from it.

In other words, the planet is 12,000 years in ‘The Dark Ages’ – coming out of it, and 12,000 years in ‘The Golden Age, going back to The Dark Ages.

That’s what they say.

Where did The Central Sun come from? Who gave it birth?

Since the beginning of time, there have been individuals who have pondered this question.

Where did IT ALL come from?
Where did Creation come from?
Out of what did IT evolve?

Great Rishis in India, great seers in Japan, in Egypt, thousands of years ago, sat beneath trees, pondering these questions.

If God created everything, where did the God come from? Who created the God?

There is always a something – and a somebody, that appears to be responsible for this creation.

So these olden day Rishis – Seers, pondered these questions, and something very interesting happened; as they pondered – externally, the cause of creation, all of a sudden they found themselves becoming ‘introverted’; They began to look within themselves.

They began to Realize ‘I AM’, and – inadvertently, they posed the question:
… ‘Who am I?’
… ‘Who am I?’
Without knowing what they were doing.

They didn’t even voice it verbally.
They just felt it: ‘Who am I?’

And as they did this, sincerely – religiously, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.., something happened!

And it came to them; ‘I am ‘That’!
… They were amazed!

Remember, these great thinkers from the past, did not know each other; they did this independently; in Egypt, in Africa, in India, Japan.

They all came up with the same answer: ‘I Am That!’

In other words, there is no external world. There is no thing, but mind.

And because there is mind;
… There is a Universe.

Therefore, ‘I Am’ The Creator of The Universe. Everything exists, because the mind exists; and they believed, they were the mind!

They came a long way, for they now Realized that everything was an emanation of the mind.

When they had this Revelation, they didn’t stop there!

They pondered: ‘What is mind?’
‘Where did mind come from?’

‘If my mind is the cause of creation’, they pondered, ‘where did the mind come from?’

Again, they pondered this for days – weeks, months, years.., until again something happened.

This time they Realized; that mind is the cause of ‘the relative world’, and ‘the relative world’ is false!

So, the mind that I think is so important, must also be false!

In other words – there is no mind! If there’s no mind – then, ‘who am I’?

It took a long time to discover that they were mind, and everything came from the mind.

Now they were Realizing that they are Not the mind.

They inquired:
… ‘Then who am I?’
… ‘Who am I?’

And they abided in themSelf.
… They became ‘The Self’!

They lost track of the body,
… The Universe,
… The mind.

They were not in a state of Samadhi, because they were Awake.

During their Awakened State:
They became Nothing.
There was ‘no mind’.
There was ‘no universe’.

There was ‘no God’!

There was ‘no body’.
There were ‘no others’.

There was just Absolute Nothingness; and they Realized – this is The Self!

Not ‘myself’ – but, ‘The Self’!
… And they were absorbed in The Silence.

From that moment on, the world still appeared to them, but they were able to see right through it.

All pain disappeared, worry, fear, desire; it all disappeared. It was ‘transmuted’.

Now these ancient Rishis were unable to share this with devotees – or disciples, because IT’s a ‘personal experience’.

Since IT’s beyond words, IT’s beyond mind, and beyond thoughts.., how can one actually share ‘This’?!

Therefore, these ancient Rishis became Silent. They never spoke.

Yet, there was such power emanating from them, that if the right devotees came to them, and just sat with them: doing nothing, saying nothing, wanting nothing, desiring nothing; they too achieved the same results.

It was amazing!

This technique was passed down through the ages. It was commonly called Advaita Vedanta or Jnana, and it is still The Supreme Truth.”

~ Robert Adams ~

EVERYTHING IS NOTHING : It’s just that simple to quiet your thoughts and enjoy perfect peace

“As a mountain is unshaken by the wind, so the heart of a wise person is unmoved by all the changes on this earth.”
~ Buddha

“The wise person leaves the external world alone. They have very little to do with the external world. They have trained themselves that when they behold a situation, there’s no reaction, no identification. You become non-hurtable. You cannot be hurt any longer by words, by deeds, by whatever.”
~ Robert Adams

“Suffering is part of our training program for becoming wise.”
~ Ram Dass

YOUR OPPORTUNITY TO AWAKEN
▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎▪︎

This is your opportunity to awaken. Why not use it? Do not let another moment go by where you’re sitting there and believing and thinking something is wrong somewhere. … There are so many people who want a beautiful world in which to live, where there’s everlasting peace and tranquility, where there’s joy and abundance. Yet these things are temporary.

This is not the way of this world. It’s interesting, when you stop thinking of joy, when you stop thinking of sadness, when you stop thinking of good things and bad things, again, something wonderful happens to you, for you are no longer attached to anything.

Yet in this non-attachment, you feel love and kindness, beauty and joy, in a totally different way. Why not awaken now? Will you do this for me? Wake up! Do me a favor. Stop playing these games.

~ Robert Adams
20th century
American Advaita mystic

Say to yourself, “I exist. I know that for sure. I exist. I exist. That’s all I know. I’m ignorant of everything else, but I do know that I exist because here I am.” And, as you keep saying this to yourself, “I exist,” you begin to put more space between “I” and “exist.” “I… exist.” Say that to yourselves — “I… exist, ””I… exist.”

If you’re doing this correctly you’ll soon find that “I” and “exist” are two separate words. In other words you’ll come to the conclusion that you exist as I. You’ll have to ask yourself, ponder, “Who is this I that exists? What is I?” You never answer. It will come to you of it’s own accord. When you sleep and you awaken you say, “I slept.” When you dream you say, “I had a dream.” And when you’re awake, of course, you say, “I am awake.” But that I is always there. You start to inquire within yourself, “What is this I that exists at all times? It exists when I’m asleep, when I’m awake, when I dream. Who is this I?” And now the inquiry starts. “Where does this I come from? From whence cometh the I?” You ask yourself. The answers are within yourself. And you keep asking yourself over, and over, and over again, “From whence cometh the I? Where does the I come from?” Or, “Who am I?” And you wait a little while, and you repeat the same question, “Where does the I come from?”

While you’re doing that, you follow the I deep, deep within. You keep following the I. You go deeper and deeper into the I. “Where does this I come from? Who is this I?” Whatever answer comes to you is the wrong answer. Do not accept it but do not deny it. You simply put it aside. And you continue with the self-inquiry. “Who am I?” And you wait. And you ask again, “Who am I?” It is not a mantra. Where did the I come from? How did it get there? Who gave it birth? What is the source of the I? You continue to abide in the I.

As you continue this process someday something will happen. To some people it comes like an explosion within, where all your thoughts are wiped away. For you see, I is the first pronoun, and every thought that you have in the world is attached to the I. It is secondary. Think about that. Whatever you have to say about yourself has I in it. Everything in the world is about yourself. I am going to the movies. I am going bowling. I feel like crying. I feel terrible. I feel wonderful. I feel sick. I feel well. There’s always an I, I, I. What is this I, and what is it all about? Everything is attached to the I. Subsequently, when the I is wiped out, everything else is wiped out and the troubles are over. All thoughts go with the I.

Now there’s no answer to “Who am I?” When you get to the answer there will be emptiness, a void. You will be of the unborn. But it is not a void like you think. It is not emptiness like you think. For want of a better word you can call it godliness, nirvana, sat-chit-ananda, bliss consciousness, absolute reality. It doesn’t matter what name you give it. You will become that, and there will be no explanation. You will just become that, and you will feel a profound peace that you have never felt before. You will feel a bliss that is unqualified. You will try to explain it to yourself and to your friends, but you cannot, for the finite cannot comprehend the infinite. There are no words.

Robert Adams
Excerpt from: Satsang
‘I … exist’

t

Tom Das

Liberation & Non-Duality

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Spiritual enlightenment: powerful teachings from Robert Adams

JANUARY 5, 2018 ~ TOM DAS

Robert Adams (1928-1997), who I think I can rightly call a devotee of Ramana Maharshi, taught in his later years in the USA. From what I’ve read of his teachings, they are incredibly similar to the verbal teachings of Ramana Maharshi, and also have a sense of openness, precision and clarity.

I’ve trawled through a few of his writings and put together some excerpts that I hope will be of benefit to the seeker of spiritual enlightenment. This is not meant to represent the complete scope of Robert Adam’s teachings, but just to highlight some key points that leapt out to me as I read through. I particularly concentrated on the role of thought in Robert Adam’s teachings.

I have bolded some phrases that seemed important to me and also interspersed some very brief comments in red. Again, I hope this is of benefit to you.

Firstly, some teachings about ‘no thoughts’, which will be expanded upon later on. In the initial quotes Robert says ‘no thoughts’, but in the later quotes he explains exactly what this means.

Sitting here quietly, peaceful, without thoughts then you are the unblemished Self. The ultimate reality, this is you right now. As soon as you start thinking about it, it goes away, it changes, it’s not you any longer, it’s your humanhood. So when I say to adore your Self I am referring to adoring yourself as God, as the ultimate reality which is really you. But if you think of yourself as a human being with problems who makes mistakes you cannot adore yourself at all. You condemn yourself you put yourself down.

Liberation means that you’re totally and completely free, without thoughts. There are no thoughts in the Self. If there were thoughts in the Self, it wouldn’t be the Self. For the Self is only one and all-pervading. When you become absorbed in the Self, it’s completely different than what you ever believed. It’s not explainable. But as far as you’re concerned, you become totally free, happy, peaceful. There is no longer anyone to argue with or become upset over. This is the Self.

It’s very simple, no thoughts and you’re free.

Now a bit about a method of creating a state in which there are no thoughts:

See what you’re doing now. You’re thinking. That spoils it. Learn to stay without thought. Even if for a few seconds. It’s hard isn’t it. This is the reason you have to ask yourself, “To whom do these thoughts come?” It’s only a modality to cause you to stop thinking. (slight pause)

Some of you are beginning to feel what I’m talking about. No thoughts. Nothing to remember. Nothing to do. When thoughts come to you about your affairs, about your predicament, realize that you have surrendered your affairs and your predicament to the Self and all is well.

In other words there should be no situation that appears strong enough to set you off. Feeling miserable or feeling too happy. No thing should have that power. It’s called the thoughtless state.

It’s really not that hard. Let go. Close your eyes, it’ll help. If you have to do something, observe your breath. But if you can’t, forget about your breath. After all, to whom does the breath come? To the body. Since there is no body there is no breath. Then what is? I-am. What is I-am? Silence. Open your heart, let go. There is no past, no future. No thing can ever harm you. You exist in eternity. Be still. The breath does not exist any longer. There never was a body.

There is only that. Silence.

Your job is to stop thinking. To remove the thoughts. The thoughts are your Master now. That make you feel sad or happy, good or bad. Why do you feel this way? For your thoughts since you were a little kid have been impressed by the world conditions, by your parents, by your school, by your church and they have convinced you and programmed you to believe this is good, this is bad, this is right, this is wrong. Only when you have this are you successful. If you don’t have certain things you are a failure. It is the thoughts that tell you these things. Again if there are no thoughts there is noone left to tell you anything. This is called liberation, moksha, freedom. You begin where you are now. You begin with yourself. You question yourself. You inquire, “Who am I?” You sit in the silence. If thoughts come you inquire, “To whom do they come? You become still.”

When the mind is quiet the thoughts subside. When there are no thoughts there is the self. So all these practices are really to quieten the mind, not for any other purpose. No matter what form of sadhana you’re practicing. Whether you’re a Jnana or bhakta or karmic yoga or anything else they’re really the same. All of these practices are simply to quieten the mind. To make the mind one pointed. When the mind becomes one pointed self-inquiry becomes very easy. Then the mind will disappear completely and you’ll be free.

And what about feelings?

Body sensations are the same as thoughts. As you keep inquiring, “Who am I?” And you stay in the space between the answer, between the question. Then the body thoughts become less and less and the thoughts become less and less, they’re the same thing. The feelings and the thoughts are nothing as you practice sel finquiry. You ask, “Who does this come to? It comes to me. I think this. Who am I?” And when you keep still your body sensations will slow down, as well as your thoughts. And soon there will be no body sensations, there will be no thoughts. There will be nothing. So body sensations are the same as thoughts. T139: Existence Is Not In Form! 1500 When one goes the other goes also. You cannot have body sensations without thoughts. There has to be a thought about a body sensation. So when the thoughts dissipate, the body sensations will also dissipate.

Is no-thoughts the same as self-realisation?

The no mind state is when you’ve come from practicing, to the place in the silence. Where there are no thoughts bothering you any longer. You get there through self inquiry. That is the fastest way. But that is not self-realization. Self-realization is when the mind is pulled into the spiritual heart…

…Liberation, moksha, self-realization is when the mind that’s left over in the silence is pulled completely into the spiritual heart. At that time your whole mind, the I dissolves completely and you are free.

So the no mind state is a very high state. It’s the state of bliss. But there is still somebody left to experience the bliss. When the bliss is pulled into the heart there is no one left to experience anything. Therefore you no longer say, “I’m in the no mind state.” At that time there is nothing to say. Can you understand that?

I’m scared. What will happen if I don’t think?

The thoughts and the ego are synonymous. As the thoughts slow down, the ego slows down, and begins to also disappear with the thoughts. When there are no thoughts, there’s no ego. When there’s no ego, there’s nobody left to think. Then the question you will ask is, “How do I function without thinking?” As I mentioned in the beginning, the sage’s thoughts are like a burnt rope. They appear to be real, but they’re not. In other words, your thoughts are not real. They are false. How do you function without thoughts? Very well, thank you.

Many of you still believe you have to have thoughts to function. You think you’ll become a vegetable, but you will be spontaneous without thoughts. You’ll be motivated by the Self. You will know what to do, where to go, whom to speak to, whom not to speak to, much better than you do now, much, much better. Things will happen to you spontaneously. Everything we always talk about is very paradoxical, and the paradox here is, even though you have no thoughts, you will still think about certain things. It has to be done. But there’s absolutely no thinker alive. There’s no thinker. There is no one left to think, yet you still appear to be thinking about certain things, so you can function. It’s similar to what we were discussing on Sunday. People always ask me, “What do you see? Do you see the world?” Of course I see the world. If I didn’t see the world, I wouldn’t be able to function. But I see the world as the Self. In other words, I see the world as images on reality, like in the movies, the images on the screen. I’m able to see the screen and the images at the same time. I see reality and I see the images. So it is with the thoughts, the same thing with the thoughts. You appear to be thinking, but you’re not thinking. This is a very important point to remember. You will think whatever you have to think about, but the thoughts will be dead, like the burnt rope, like the fan with the plug pulled out, but the blades are still spinning, until they stop.

But can we really stop our thoughts? It that actually possible?

Now really, no Sage on this earth or anywhere else really stops the thoughts. As long as you see a body, and you call that body the Sage, there will always be some sort of thinking in that body, some sort of thought. For instance I can be sitting here and I’ll say to myself “when I go home I’m going to eat a dish of ice-cream”. This is a thought. But what happens when I say it and what happens when you say it?

When I say it, when I think it, it is similar to a burned rope. A burned rope may appear to be strong, but when you pick it up, it turns to ashes. It’s burned. There’s nothing there. When you say it, it is like a real rope, not burned. You give it energy, you give it power. Again when the Sage thinks of something, it is like a fan that has been pulled out of the socket. It’s still turning, but there’s no power. The power is dead. The power has been cut off. In other words, the source of a Saint is dead. The source of the Sage has no power, no power whatsoever. This is why it is said, a Sage does not think. A Sage has no thoughts. What it really means is that the Sage’s thoughts are dead.

When the thoughts are dead, you live in ABSOLUTE REALITY. You live in PURE AWARENESS. When the thoughts are dead you live in SAT-CHIT-ANANDA, in NIRVANA. So what do you have to do to also cease thinking, so the thoughts can become dead? You simply do not attach yourself to the thoughts. By not attaching yourself to the thoughts, by not reacting to the thoughts, by not responding to the thoughts, they lose their power and begin to fade away. Yet do not give them any energy. Do not give them any power. Do not say to yourself, I have to stop my thoughts. Do nothing like this. Just slow down, slow down. Let the thoughts do what they may. Allow the thoughts to go their own way. Do nothing with your thoughts. Do not think about them. Do not fight them. And above all, do not try to stop them. You may think this is so difficult, but it’s not.

It’s like when you first wake up, before the thoughts come. You’re still drowsy from sleep. And when the first thoughts come to you, you hardly pay any attention to them. That’s the attitude to have.  

“There are three methods we use to help us on the path to enlightenment:

Number one is self-surrender, where we surrender completely to God, or to the Self. But that’s hard to do for most people. It sounds easy, but it’s not. It means that you have no life of your own. You surrender completely and totally everything to God, totally. Every part of your life goes to God. ‘Not my will, but thine.’ That’s devotion, bhakti. Again, it sounds easy to some people, but it’s not when you get into it, because it means every decision that you have to make is left up to God. You give your mind to God, totally, completely and absolutely. And that leads you to self-realization.

Number two is mindfulness, becoming the witness. Watching yourself continuously. Watching your thoughts. Watching your actions. Sitting in meditation and watching what goes on in your mind. Not trying to change anything or correct anything. Just observing. Becoming the witness to your thoughts in meditation, and to your actions in the waking state.

And number three is the one that I advocate, self-inquiry. Asking yourself, ‘To whom do these troubles come? To whom does this karma come? To whom does this suffering come? It comes to me? Well, what is me? I am me. Who am I? From where did the I come from?’ And following the I to its source.

You can use any of those three methods, the one that suits you best. But by all means do something. Don’t waste your life with frivolities. Work on yourself, if you want to become free.”

~ Robert Adams (20th century American Advaita mystic)

She asked, “How should I do that?” I said, “Say to yourself with your respiration, “I Am.” Inhale say, “I,” exhale say, “Am.” That is invoking the name of God. That is doing Japa. Speaking Gods name over and over again. Instead of thinking about your troubles, instead of concerning yourself about your heart, surrender it all to God. By invoking his name, I Am, and you will be free
Robert Adams

The ego is the mind, and the mind is the ego, the very nature of mind is thoughts. Without thoughts, there is no mind because the mind is only a bundle of thoughts. The thought of “I”(ego) is the root of every other thought, trace this thought back to where it came from and ask “who are you arising to?” … “to me!” … “who am I?” And bam! You cut the thoughts off at their source. Abide in this source by not allowing the mind(thoughts) to roam outwards onto any sense object, by allowing the grace of the source to take over keeping you focused on itself. Ask the same questions again if you find yourself following thoughts, until the phantom that the mind is, vanishes and you relax and float down the stream of the source that you are. This source is the real you, which is eternally here and now.

Every negative condition you see in the world is a lie. Every positive condition you see in the world is a lie. Reality is beyond positive and negative. Why do you see these things? Why do you worry and fret about your life or about the life of someone else?

What can possibly happen to you? Where can you go? Who suffers? Only the body-ego-mind suffers. To the extent that you can realize that you are not the body-ego-mind, to that extent do you become totally, absolutely free.

Robert Adams
20th century
American Advaita mystic